Terrific Bath Towels

You can never have too many towels  especially with a rotating cast of overnight visitors. To help you choose a great new set, we checked out 55 lines, testing a white and a colored towel from each for absorbency, drying time, shrinkage, fading, and wear. Here, five to get wrapped up in. For more great home goods, check out our best bets for bedding

Best Value

A real bargain, Bed Bath & Beyond's Lasting Color ($6, bedbathandbeyond.com) wicked away water and dried out quickly. After five washes, the towel faded little but lost four to five inches in length and an inch or so in width. The tough cotton won't tear easily. In eight colors.

Least Shrinkage

The downfall of all cotton towels is that they will shrink over time. The extremely absorbent Pottery Barn Hydro Cotton ($19, potterybarn.com) shrank the least overall of our winners, losing three to four inches in length and about an inch in width after five washes. It also didn't fade much. In five colors.

Fade-Resistant

For towels that won't lose their vibrancy, consider Park Avenue from Peacock Alley ($29, 800-496-2880). The elegant cotton absorbs well and dries quickly, and looked nearly new after multiple washes, although it shrank about three inches in both width and length. In five colors.

Super Luxe

The plush Macy's Hotel Collection ($25, 800-343-0121) bested the rest to become our overall test winner. Very absorbent but also quick-drying, these cotton towels looked and felt lovely even after multiple washes, though they did shrink some (three to four inches in length and about an inch in width). In 16 colors.

Fastest Drying

The lightweight JCPenney's Linden Street Quick Dri ($10, jcp.com) dried quickly indeed  in about 2 1/2 hours in our tests (the fastest of our picks by nearly 25 minutes, on average). The trade-off: It's thinner than others, so the cotton may rip more easily if snagged. Shrinkage ranged up to four inches all around. In 10 colors.

The Fine Print: Many towels' care tags (more than half on those we tested) instruct you to tumble dry on low. While we adhered to care guidelines, if you regularly use high heat, towels may shrink, fade, or wear out faster.

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